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ON 







V 




G EKE IT SMITH 

WILLIAM L. CRANDAL 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1852. 



E£®s§&BtlB, a aid M§ Mission. 



To Gerrit Smith : 

My esteemed Friend: — A day or two 
since, I received from you a copy of a Letter 
which you had published in reference to Kos- 
suth, addressed to Frederick Douglass, and 
written in answer to one from him requesting 
your views. 

Wl»y I admire E£©ssmtls. 
I do not agree with all you say in that let- 
ter, nor with all that is to be inferred from 
what is said; and although I may in intellect, 
compare myself to you as a child to a giant,' 
yet so intense is my admiration of Kossuth 
and his doctrines: Who is the most eloquent 
man that ever lived; whose propositions 
without argument are responded to by the 
human intellect, affections and moral senti- 
ments, as self-evident truths ; whose words 
are not more eloquent than his deeds ; who 
unites the childlike simplicity and humility of 
the Christian to the highest rank in eloquence, 
philosophy and statesmanship; who possesses 
that highest attribute of Genius, the power to 
make the most important truths in the law of 
nations, where all has been obscurity to the 
common mind, so plain that a child can com- 
prehend them; who has thus forever taken the 
Foreign Policy of the United States out of the 
hands of the Politicians, and placed it in the 
hands of the People, for the people always 
will manage what they understand; whose 



deeds and words awaken and arouse the slum- 
bering mind alike of the friends and enemies of 
Oppression throughout the world; who, an 
invited guest and pleader for our aid, has told 
tins vain and arrogant people, that they are not 
a "power on earth"— that they have lived the 
hfeof the silk-worm encased in the web it had 
woven for itself— and that now they are, in the 
midst of their fancied prosperity and power 
m danger of moral palsy in the form of an 
'• overshadowing materialism" ; who has eve- 
rywhere preached that Liberty is a divine right ■ 
who has everywhere declared that the oblirau 
uon to "do to others as we would have, others 
do to us," is a "reality"; who has pronounced 
a New Code for the government of the family 
of nations, with a force which is inherent evi- 
dence of authority; a man whose opinion on 
no given political question, which involves 
principle, is doubted by any human being who 
is not an idiot or a lunatic; 'a man before whose 
name the lovers of Oppression in every form 
quake with secret dread, without his so much 
as touching the hem of their "peculiar" gar- 
ments; whose marvelous political talents 
could have made him in fact the luxurious au- 
tocrat of politics and religion in Europe— the 
best paid man in the world as well as the most 
powerful-yet who for Civil and Religious 
freedom's sake, chose to push from him all 
these allurements to a selfish ambition, and to 
take in their stead, poverty and toil, weariness 
and sorrow, calumny and the dungeon, wan- 
dering and exile; whose soul is so faithfully 
an "image of the Deity" that he can know no 













rest, can know nought but sorrow, while his 
people have not Liberty ; who is the first man, 
mixed up with and at the head of a Political 
Government, who has declared the Golden 
Rule to be the true creed of the Political 
Church, and that he who is false to the doc- 
trine that " Man is brother to his fellow-man," 
is a traitor to man and a traitor to God ; who 
declares the Law of Nations to be to protect 
and not to devour : who is like a star emerging 
from the dark and lowering horizon of Eastern 
Despotism, to shed the light of political Truth 
on a people who for seventy-five years have 
been engaged in demonstrating how near like 
India-rubber, professions of Republicanism can 
be ; who is the world-wide Apostle of Human 
Brotherhood, with a Mission to organize the 
friends of Freedom throughout the world, and 
who, with a potential voice, summons them to 
the bar of their own Conscientiousness and Be- 
nevolence, and obeying that summons, in 
harmony as delightful as effective, they shall 
fight that last great battle of Liberty, in which 
the clash of arms will be like sweetest music, 
and in which Tyranny shall be drowned in a 
torrent formed of its own guilty blood : — I say, 
so intense is my admiration of this Man and 
the Doctrines he preaches, that I am constrain- 
ed to put on paper some of the reasons why I 
think a part of your views touching Kossuth 
and his Mission are not correct. 

A Word abamt Gerrit SsLSii&Ba. 

It is fifteen years since our personal ac- 
quaintance began. I then respected and ad- 
mired you, and loved you as a friend : I said I 
had seen a Man ! Time and experience and 
reflection, have ripened those feelings into 
veneration. Sir, they are rearing a Monument 
to Washington, to be 500 feet high. They 
can't do that for you, fifty years after your 
body shall have been laid in the tomb; for they 
own only up to the sky, and your Monument 
will go higher than that ! — formed of the re- 
spect, and the love, and the veneration of great 
and grateful hearts, it will reach from Earth 
to the throne of the Eternal ! It will not 
crumble nor decay, but will grow brighter and 
brighter while a single soul lives upon the 
earth to contemplate it. Yet no man lives 
whose opinions I would more readily contro- 
vert, where my own differed. So it was at our 
first meeting. Not less heartily than you, do 
I repudiate with scorn the idea of human au- 
thority in regard to conclusions to be adopted 
by the human intellect. Every man's opinions 
are just as tall as the column of facts and log- 
ical arguments by which they are supported — 
and no taller. Fools and knaves may use the 
opinions of other men, or induce others to 
adopt them, as opinions ; but a man does nei- 
ther. 

Kossuth proposes Revolution. 

Kossuth is indoctrinating the world. He 



proposes a Revolution in the politics of the 
world. His audience is the world. The boo- 
bies ridicule him, because they don't know any 
better ; Oppressors with brains,revile, because 
they fear him ; lovers of equal rights shout 
for joy, because they love him. All hear him. 
He proposes that the Law of Nations shall 
be founded on the written and unwritten com- 
mand — " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self." This is revolutionary. He does more. 
He proposes that Principle shall be made a 
"reality" in the world's politics -that it shall 
not be a pretense. This is Revolutionary. — 
He proposes the overthrow of the present law 
of nations, which is founded on the principle 
of "every one for himself," or Supreme Self- 
ishness, and to establish a new law, founded 
on Brotherhood and Right, or Supreme Good 
Will. The law of nations is professedly for 
the security of nations. It is the same as the 
law against pirates on the sea, or thieves on 
the shore. Here, all protect all. Kossuth 
proposes that all nations shall be security for 
each. This done, and Switzerland, or Italy, 
or Hungary, or Ireland, is as strong as the 
strongest, A man worth $100, who has 
a note of $1000 to pay, indorsed by five men 
worth $200,000 each, is worth to all intents 
and purposes in the eye of the holder of that 
note, one million of dollars. This new law 
once established, and the weakest nation is as 
secure at the strongest. It will put an end to 
War ! There must be some bloodshed first, 
in order to prepare the way. All the Despots 
in Europe and America, oppose the new poli- 
tics of Kossuth. The Government of Eng- 
land is opposed to it. The People are on the 
other side, and will regulate them, or circum- 
stances will do it. The majority of the Amer- 
ican Congress dare not touch Kossuth's poli- 
tics. But the People will touch the Congress- 
men ! I should like to see a list — if big enough 
to be seen — of the anti- Kossuth members of 
next year's Congress elected north of Mason's 
and Dixon's line ! It is the " common people" 
who hear Kossuth " gladly." That divine 
doctrine of the Brotherhood of the Human 
Family, they know to be the " sign by which 
they are to conquer." 

3s fiosstsftia a Patriot '?»»»or PIafia.ii3.tSar©™ 
pist I'-or is lac Kotia 7 

Is Kossuth a Patriot ? — is he a Philanthro- 
pist 1 ? — or is he both? I understand you to 
regard him as a patriot and not a philanthro- 
pist. This led me to write this Letter, which 
I intend to make a talk, with some suggestions 
which others will think of or not as they 
choose. I think he is both patriot and philan- 
thropist. 

It is idle to talk, in a practical sense, of the 
human family as individualities. Nations are 
to the world, what the Family is to the neigh- 
borhood or community. It is idle to talk_of 



r 



•an equally diffused affection, for it is contrary 
to natural law, and is therefore as untrue as it 
is impossible. It. is wise that it is so. The 
intensity of family and national affection, is 
needed for mutual aid, mutual sacrifices, mu- 
tual security, and the perfection of character. 
The narrowness of the circle of operations for 
these great and needed sacrifices, stimulates 
Hope and Activity, by rendering the. gratifica- 
tion of those natural affections possible, which 
would not be so if the field was the World. 
By this I mean, that as between my sister and 
another lady out of my family, if one must 
starve, if left to me it would not be. the former. 
If a man of Hungary or of America, of equr.l 
value to the world, must die of starvation, I 
should let the man in Hungary starve. I say 
this is Nature, and therefore Truth. Because 
parents might be willing to lay down health 
and life for their children, does it follow that 
they may not love all other children, and wish 
and do for their prosperity and happiness'? — 
much less, does it follow that they are to hate 
and abuse other children, or be indifferent to 
their welfare ? Let those who assert it, bring 
on the. philosophy to prove it. Kossuth does, 
indeed, work and plead for Hungary's Cause 
with the energy of despair. To my mind, this 
is beautiful. How does he plead? By telling 
lis — Yankee fashion — what a "great people" 
they are, and merely that they suffer? No! 
He tells you that Hungary has a right to be 
free; that the exercise of that right has been 
suppressed by perjury and force ; and that the 
practical maintenance of the true law of nations 
by guarantying the freedom of Hungary from 
foreign intermeddling, would be a triumph of 
Civil and Religious Liberty for the world. It 
would be decided by the world, for the world. 
What does he do ? He preaches doctrines, so 
plain that a "fool need not err therein," which 
would lift the heel of oppression from the 
neck of every desolate and crushed victim on 
earth. 

I say again, Kossuth begs, toil 3 , pleads for 
Hungary. But Hungary is not the sermon. 
It is only the text. Hungary is only the op- 
portunity for organizing this new political 
church with pure Religion in it, and which is 
to be the refuge and bulwark of Liberty, till 
" Nations shalljearn war no more." Kossuth 
proves as clear as sunlight, that the principle 
of the Brotherhood of Nations — the divine law 
of doing as we would be doneby — has been 
trodden under foot in the sad fate of Hungary. 
He asks that Hungary be restored to the en- 
joyment of her Natural Rights ; he proves that 
it can be done only by the ascendency of the 
potential and sublime principles he has invok 



and children, and their life-long friends, to the 
Home of their early days, and struggles and 
sufferings, as Well romantic as heroic, for lib- 
erty and the right ? For 



" How dear to the heart are the seenesof its childhood,. 

When fond recollection presents them to view : 
The orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wild-woody. 

And every lov'd spot, which my infancy knew ; 
The wide spreading pond, and the mill which stood by it, 

The bridge, and ihe rock where the cataract fell, 
The col of my father, the dairy house nigh it, 

And e'en the rude bucket which hung in the well. 
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, 
The moss-covered bucket which hung in the well." 

Is Loins Kossuth tobe styled a mere patriot,- 
because he labors thus for Hungary? It so, 
may God multiply the Patriots! As well 
might Gerrit Smith, or Garrison, or Wendell 
Phillips, or John Thomas, or Frederick Doug- 
lass, or Chaplin, or Loguen, or Samuel R. 
Ward, be called patriots and not philanthro- 
pists, because the labor of their lives is devoted 
to the interests of native Americans ! What 
is a Philanthropist? What makes one ? Is it 
power ? What man besides Kossuth, makes 
tremble every tyrant on the earth who lives in 
the neighborhood of a printing office, from the 
Slaveholder of the United States, to the per- 
jured President of France, or the equally per- 
fidious wretch who rules over Austria and 
Hungary? Who besides, when he speaks, 
makes the hearts of the friends of Freedom 
throughout the world, dance for joy? Is it 
eloquence 1 Who that lives — or, if you please 
— who that ever lived, not claiming divine in- 
spiration — compares with Louis Kossuth ? He 
is beyond comparison in the magic and power 
of his eloquent thoughts and words. Is it phi- 
losophy ? Where have we found him at fault 
in the philosophy of politics, of religion, of 
morals, of trade and commerce, or of whatever 
topic relative to the human mind, or any of its 
multiform relations to God and man, which his 
mind has touched upon ? Who, since He of 
the incarnation "spake as never man spake," 
has made that philosophy so plain ? Is it self- 
sacrifice? Here I will not say a word. Is it 
words and deeds for Man ? What can be ad- 
ded to his plea for universal Justice, universal 
Respect, universal Benevolence ? If the man 
who dares all, suffers all, speaks all, and is 
heard by all, on behalf of the Equal and inal- 
ienable Rights and Brotherhood of the human 
family, be not a Philanthropist, then my judg- 
ment, feeble enough to be sure, is at fault. I 
claim that Louis Kossuth does all this; and I 
therefore claim that he is a Philanthropist. 

If a FS&iiantliropistf wliy Bias siot Kos» 
StaiHi, iaa terms, uleaioasHced. American 
Slavery '? 

But do you say that Kossuth has not made 
ed, and which will be the death-knell of tyr- 1 war, in terms, on American Slavery? Neither 
anny in every form. Is he at fault, because do the Ten Commandments — neither did 
the restoration of Hungary, on these princi- 1 Christ. Neither the Old Dispensation of 
pies, would restore himself, his loved wife " thou shalt not" nor the New Dispensation of 



' thou shall" has a word on the subject. And 
men professing faith in and reverence for, both 
Dispensations — the Moderators of your Old 
and New School General Assemblies, for 1852 
— claim the sanction of both for American 
Slavery. I will not say that in this they are 
guilty of blasphemy — that they mock the God 
who they declare is the author of the Bible. 
Their account is with a higher and just tribu- 
nal, which will make fearful inquisition as to 
what ye did or did not do " to the least of these, 
my brethren." I will simply say. I do not be- 
lieve them. But is there one of these priests. 
who has the hardihood to say he believes Kos- 
suth approves of American Slavery? Is not 
this a conclusive point, in "defining" Kossuth's 
position? Is there a slaveholder who has so 
little self respect, who is so heedless or reck- 
less of his intellectual reputation, as to say he 
believes Kossuth is in favor of American Slave- 
very? There can be. but one answer to these 
questions. And does not this attest the almost 
unearthly power of the man, and the vitality 
of his principles ? 

From the start, I approved of Kossuth's 
course. I am considerably opposed to Slave- 
ry, and I rejoice, that in terms, he has not touch- 
ed the unclean thing. To my mind, it reveals 
a consciousness of his own power, and of the 
true nature of his mission — a Preacher of 
Righteous Politics to the Nations. I think he 
has done a ten-fold greater work for the cause 
of Human Rights in America, than he could if 
he had denounced the " peculiar" form of Tyr- 
anny in America, in terms, as he has every- 
where by his principles and scathing denunci- 
ations. He has now revealed America to her- 
self and to the world. He has made her strip 
off her own mask ! What a work! — worthy 
of the gods! Kossuth comes here for a single 
purpose — aid in the redemption of Hungary. 
On what pretenses does he make the request ? 
That the Natural Rights of her people — white 
people — hav'e been trodden under foot; and 
that the obligations arising from the Brother- 
hood of the humanfamily, demand that we aid 
in restoring those Rights. And from whence 
does opposition to his glorious doctrines come ? 
From Slave-owners of the South, and from 
'the equally tenacious Slave-holder a of the 
North! — demonstrating to the world, that 
American Slavery is not a thing of color, but 
a thing of lust. Had Kossuth turned aside 
from his Mission for a moment and touched 
even the hem of the garments of this monster, 
huge, loathsome and unsightly as it is, it would 
have put on the airs of injured innocence, and 
piteously and indignantly asked the world if 
they could consistently grant the request of a 
man who opened his subject by spitting in 
their faces 1 No such refuge is now afforded 
them. There, stands the " peculiar institution," 
in the clear, burning sun, with not a rag to 



hide its leprous form from the gaze of a sor- 
rowful and indifnant world, the self-proclaim- 
ed Enemy of the Liberties of Mankind, in 
1852! This work Ko-suth has done! It 
was indeed the touch of Ithuriel's spear! Mil- 
ton, as all will recollect, in Paradise Lost, repre- • 
sents that when Eve was a resident of Eden, 
and was lying in repose, Satan came to whis- 
per in the ear of her ladyship one of his "pe- 
culiar" discourses, and thus tells the shape 
he came in, and what revealed him : 

"Him there they found 

Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve. 
Assaying by his devilish art to reach 
The organs of her fancy, and with them form 
.Illusions, as he list, phantasms and dreams ; 
Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint 
The animal spirits lh;it from pure blood arise 
Like gentle breaths, from rivers pure, thence raise 
At least distempered, discontented thoughts, 
Vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires, 
Blowii up with high conceits, engendering pride. 
tlim thus intent, Ithuriel with hi.s spear 
Touch'd lightly ; for no falsehood can endure 
Touch of celestial temper, but returns 
• f force to its own likeness : Up he starts 
Discover'd and surprised. As when a spark 
Lights on a heap of nitrous powder, laid 
Fit lor the tun some magazine to store 
Against a rumored war, the smutty grain, 
With sudden hlaze diffused, inflames the air: 
So started up in his own shape the Fiend"! 

Kossuth speaks to the world, for the world- 
He siys, Help Hungary. Why? He says, 
Because you are bound to do bv Hungary, as 
you would have Hungary do by you. This, 
he says, is the Code of Human Brotherhood. 
In asking this for Hungary, he asks it for till 
mankind. In doing it, we do it for Man. He 
asks us, in our national political relations, to 
carry out the Golden Rule laid down by our 
Savior. He asks u« to dothi-, because it is 
the written and unwritten command of the 
Deily, and i-< therefore a Principle. He de- 
mands of us that in our political action, that 
principle be made a "reality." On what 
ground does he demand that we aid Hungary ? 
Because it is right: because of our obligation 
to ourselves and to all men to do right. Be- 
cause all men are bound to obey the Law ; and 
the law is, "Thou shall love thy neighbor as 
thyself." Has he asked aid fur Hungary on 
any other grounds than the brotherhood of the 
human race, and the brotherhood of nations, 
--on this fundamental law of Nature— that 
"Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
unto you, do ye even so to them ; for this is 
the law and the prophets"? Is not every 
petition for " material aid" for Hungary, on 
this principle, a petition for Man ? And is not 
that Philanthropy? Is philanthropy either 
more or less than that ? Then is not Louis 
Kossuth a Philanthropist.* 

*Note— Since the above was in type, I have met with 
Kossuth's address to the Germans at Buffalo, to the Pub- 
lic School Children of Albany, and his remarks in reply 
to the presentation of .f 800 " material aid" by the Young 
Wen's Hungarian Association of the city of Albany. I give 
brief extracts They need no comment :— 



5 



Such is the Appeal which this wonderful 
man makes to the nations. He speaks straight 
to the divine impress written on the miml of 
every human being. Hence, the force of his 
appeal is felt to be omnipotent, wherever in- 
telligence exists. " As face am>wereth to face 

TO THE YOUNG MEN OF ALBANY. 

What may be the destiny reserved to myself, I do not 
know. So much I know, that duty toward Fatherland and 
Humanity, must be the guiding star of every true man, 
whether called to see the rights of Humanity maintained, 
or to fall on the field of battle, that others may pass over 
his dead body to the triumph reserved for happier arms. I 
preached the principle of Brotherhood amongst Nations. 
I was called presumptuous for it, but still 1 went on. I 
have felt the thorn of persecution, and have drank the cup 
of calumny, and still 1 went on. 

TO GERMANS OF BUFFA' O. 

Faithfulness have I sworn to my country, love to liberty, 
intimate brotherhood to the nations, and, like Hannibal to 
the Romans, I have sworn hatred to the tyrants; and, 
faithful to my oath, ! seek not quiet repose for myself, but 
succor for my country, succor for oppressed Europe, on the 
eve of a combined struggle against combined tyranny. I 
have come to remind thee, America, of the debt you owe 
to Europe for your liberty ; i have come to remind thee 
of the duties you owe to the great family of nations, whose 
freest son thou art ; I have come io remind thee of the des- 
tiny given thee by Providence, that has made thee free and 
happy not without design; 1 have come to remind thee 
of the principles invoked by yourself in the hour of thy 
(roubles; I have come to remind thee of the thousand ties 
wherewith thy future, thine own security, is connected 
with Europe's fate ; I have come to remind thee of the 
common fate of Humanity ; I have come to warn you 
against short-sighted egotism, indolence and haughtiness ; 
I have come to ask of you the exercise of that command- 
ment— "Do unto others as thou shouldst like others, in 
thine hour of peril, to do unto thee." 

Thus I spoke in the East, in the West, in the South and 
in the North of this great Republic; and although I spoke 
in such a manner, this free people, for mouths carried the 
poor exile stranger in triumph, as no haughty conqueror 
on the very summit of his power, no triumpher in the 
verv splendor of his glory, has ever witnessed, and I hope 
in God no crowned mortal ever will witness in this free 
country. 

And" forsooth ! I have not fawned Io beg favors. I have 
not flattered the people. 1 have not humbled myself before 
any haughtiness, nor done homage to any prejudice. When 
1 was asked by America in regard to her prosperity, wheth- 
er I found her great "? — I replied, " To be great, you must 
needs act great." 

When reference was made to hi>r power, I answered, 
" You might be a power i( yon would," but as yet you are 
not a power, because you do not weigh in the scale of the 
world's politics ; prosperous indeed you are, but no pow- 
er; you have lived the life of the silk-worm that covers it- 
pelf in its own woven ab->de : 70 years is not eternity, a 
solitary position no security. 

Verily, I did not flatter prejudices, and still the noble 
heart of the people beat towards me with cordial brotherly 
love and heart-felt sympathy. 

Verily, gentlemen, it is like a dream, it is wonderful, and 
yet natural, for 1 came not to make new times, bat to show 
the present. I am the hand 'hat shows the hour, not the 
hour itself. I came not to smuggle into the people's heart 
new and unusual sounds, but to elicit the sound which ex- 
ists in the healthy common sense of the people. 

Rut no personal triumphs were my aim, and no honors 
did I seek. Honors are loathsome to me, and triumphs 
make my gloomy countenance still more gloomy. To be 
useful, not to shine, is my wish ; without merit, as I am, 
modesty is becoming. To hunt up honors is not my end, 
and ambition 1 hate. At each hurrah shouting in my ear, 
1 look anxiously towards Heaven and ask, What good will 
it do for my people? What good for Germany and Italy, 
— what goo.l for the Liberty ol Europe?— to stand fore- 
most in the ranks for which, conscious of the solidarity of 
common fate, Germany and Italy are destined V" 

TO THE CHILDREN AT ALBANY. 

And you will always remember, as there is One Father, 
so you fare all one family — One Humanity; and ALE 
ARE MEMBERS OF THIS FAMILY, BOUND by the 
UOE1EST TIES OF COMMON BROTHERHOOD. 



in water," so does the human mind everywhere 
respond to Kossuth's fidelity to nature.' It is 
this fidelity to nature, coupled with his almost 
miraculous powers, which is the secret of his 
electric and marvelous influence. Nature is 
truth. Supreme selfishness is a perversion of 
nature. The politics of the world tire govern- 
ed by supreme selfishness. This system 
Kossuth proposes to overturn, and to establish 
brotherhood in its stead. Brotherhood is 
founded in right and kindness. By an inevit- 
able necessity, these sentim< nts, wherever they 
exist, respond to Kossuth with enthusiasm. By 
the same inexorable law of mind, the abetors 
of tyranny and oppression in any form, must 
meet the truthful summons of his heroic words 
and more heroic life, with hate, scorn, and 
quaking fear. The Light of Nature is rarely 
extinguished in any intelligent nv'nd ; it is the 
voice of the Creator in the. soul; and reveals 
to tyrants of alt pretensions and all grades 
throughout Christendom, the " handwriting on 
the wall." The divinity remaining in their 
own nature, admonishes them that truth has 
more vitality than falsehood; that nature is 
better adapted to the necessities of the hu- 
man family than any perversion of it ; and 
hence the united and demoniac effort of tyran- 
ny to crush Kossuth by prosciipfion,persecution 
and calumny — carrying their schemes sofara-s 
to hunt the wife of his bosom by spies through 
all Hungary, as a hostage that this poor, wan- 
dering exile should not raise his voice for lib- 
erty and the rights of humanity. Wonderful 
man! And wonderful is thy mission to man- 
kind! Who would have him change the 
world-wide key of his Song of Deliverance to 
the oppressed of all naiions and of all time, 
for a strain upon that miserable cancer on the 
nose of the world's despotism, American Sla- 
very! — a System so mean, that its highest aim 
and therefore its highest glory, is to work men 
and women without pay, and to sell and whip 
them when they have a mind to! As though 
it were possible there could be a doubt as to 
his opinion of a System so loathsome, so de- 
graded, that the perjured Francis Joseph and 
the relentless Czar, would not allow these 
petty tyrants — as the Yankees say — to " train 
in their company"! Indeed! say they, do we 
wield the sceptre of Despotic Power simply 
because we are too lazy to work and earn our 
own living ? —that we might be idle, and live on 
the earnings of other people? Why, simply as 
tyrants, they would not admit such a set of 
despots into •' good society." Kossuth, a High 
Priest of Liberty, doubtful in regard to a phase 
of Oppression whose horrors are equaled only 
by its degradation ! I must say that the words 
would stick in my throat if I were to attempt 
to ask Kossuth his opinion of the " Peculiar 
Insti ution." His principles condemn it — an- 
nihilate it. He is the most glorious preacher 



6 



of Freedom that everappeared among the sons 
of men. His words and his deeds offer up 
perpetual incense at its altar. To doubt his 
opinion of American Slavery, is simply to 
doubt his integrity. Of him who doubts his 
integrity, I will only say that he has not enough 
of faith in m;m to make him decently happy. 
But suppose him a traitor, and that he is in 
favor of the System of American Slavery? — 
What then? He would merely be a self-con- 
convicted traitor; while his logical demonstra- 
tion of the rights of man and of the obligations 
of humanity, and his appeals on their behalf, 
clothed in a bemty and majesty of eloquence 
which the world never before listened to, 
wou'd live forever! But God forbid that my 
own soul should harbor such a doubt! I make 
the supposition merely that its logic and its 
ugliness, might be seen at once. His mission 
is to preach the principle of liberty to man, and 
of brotherhood to the nations, ^appropriately 
with his own Hungary as a text: And it has ap- 
peared to me, as it does now, that for Kossuth 
to make application of his principles in England 
by denouncing her injustice to Ireland, and in 
the United States by denouncing the violation 
of his principles by Slavery, would impair the 
unity, beauty and power of his Mission. Not 
so with me. With none of his talent, elo- 
quence or electric energy, I could not by any 
possibility captivate the ear of the world as a 
preacher of Liberty ; but in my own neigh- 
borhood, I can say that Kossuth's doctrines are 
true; advocate making them a " reality ;" and 
protest against their violation by the people of 
the United States. Suppose every man and 
woman in the United States were to do so : 
would not a Political Revolution be effected at 
once? And in England the same ? From the 
nature of things, the sphere of operations, if 
not of influence, of most men, is confined to 
the nation to which they belong, or the neigh- 
borhood in which they reside. Not so with 
Kossuth. When he speaks, the world is his 
audience. Hence, there is no more reason 
why he should speak of American Slavery 
when presenting his mission and its glorious 
principles in the city of New York than when 
standing on the rock of Gibraltar; for the 
American People are as much his audience in 
the one case as in the other. 

A Word about w Foreigners." 
I do not understand Kossuth to subscribe to 
the notion that because a man was born on 
other shores, and is there a Citizen or Subject, 
that he is hence not at liberty to say here what- 
ever he pleases on any public question. He 
could not hold such a sentiment, for he is an 
advocate of free discussion, and proclaims the 
brotherhood of the human family ; and such a 
pretension is utterly at war with both. But 
Kossuth's position is a different one. He comes 
as the Governor, in right and in law, of Hun- 



gary ; as such, he has a special request to 
make of the United States, viz : that they 
would declare as a part of the law of nations, 
that one Government has not a right to inter- 
fere with another in the settlement or disposi- 
tion of its form of government or internal af- 
fairs. As the political representative of Hun- 
gary, Kossuth took the ground that such inter- 
ference, in terras, with the internal policy of 
England or the United States, would be in the 
teeth of his own doctrine : or, as he styles it, 
'illogical." 

TJae mia.8i wBno is for Despotism in A- 
merica, and for Freedom in Europe, 
is a. Political Q,uaefe. 

But that you should be exacting on this 
point, is natural. That your conclusions can- 
not be refracted from the direct line of im- 
mutability, by feeling, I do not believe. Our 
premises are imperceptibly modified by imperi- 
ous currents of feeling. With aims so benig- 
nant as your works have revealed, to have been 
compelled in the State of New-York to run 
for your life, under the assault of men since 
made Judges of, simply for saying that Liberty 
is a birth-right, it surely need not surprise any 
man of sense, that you are very careful in giv- 
ing your full iudorsement to any professed 
friend of Liberty who has not. in terms, de- 
nounced American Slavery. For who is not 
in favor of Liberty for himself and his kin ? 
What, then, do we more than others ? The 
Sovereigns of the United States are in favor 
of Liberty for each other. So are the Sove- 
reigns of Europe. The Despots of the United 
States do not desire Liberty for their subjects. 
The same is true of the Despots of Europe. 
The victims of despotism in Europe desire lib- 
erty. The victims of despotism in the United 
States, desire the same. The man who is in 
favor of liberty for the one and not for the oth- 
er, and claims to be a friend of Freedom, is a 
political quack. 

That you admire and love almost all Kos- 
suth says and does, is a matter of course, be- 
cause he works for the good of others. But 
you think he ought to have spoken specifi- 
cally of American Slavery. J do not. it is a 
difference of opinion, in which each differs 
equally from the other. If my premises are 
right, my conclusion can hardly be disturbed. 
Logic is a very simple matter, about which 
there is no mist— no uncertainty. You may 
be right and I wrong — and the reverse may 
be true. 

Is tne Enthusiasm for Kossutla, by a Ra- 
tion wmicls supports Slavery, encour- 
aging 1 to tn.e Cause ofi Iiiwcrly 'J 

Do you say that the almost wild enthusiasm 
with which Kossuth has been welcomed by 
thousands on thousands who have as yet done 
nothing for Liberty in America, is a bad omen ? 
I do not think it is". I wish all those men and 



women had been ten times as enthusiastic : had 
given ten times as much. It is an anti-Op- 
pression fund. Every good act, done from 
a corresponding impulse, makes one human 
being better than before. The spirit which in 
America, has been set on fire by the pure chris- 
tian principles set in the almost unearthly elo- 
quence of Kossuth, which has laughed and 
cried for joy over his burning and prophetic 
words, which has felt a new and elevating and 
invigorating and cheering influence from them, 
is the spirit which, in the decisive hour, when 
it is to be determined definitively and forever 
whether Slavery or Liberty shall be paramount 
in the United States, will be on the side of 
Freedom. " Men do not gather figs of this- 
tles." Liberty, or what has been done in her 
name in America, has been a matter of self- 
interest, not of principle. To maintain the 
contrary, would be to say the American peo- 
ple are prodigiously honest, but as prodigious- 
ly stupid. Every shout and every dollar of 
sympathy for Hungary, is for a Principle : in 
obedience to the requirements of the law of 
brotherhood : is "doing as we would be done 
by." This is new in the history of a people 
who never yet sacrificed or hazarded any thing 
for liberty, except for themselves. To the full 
extent of this influence, it is Revolutionary in 
regard to character. That character when de- 
veloped, cannot live quietly under a Govern- 
ment which lends its power to the oppression 
of a single human being. The hour is not dis- 
tant when that question will be decided under 
this government. Those who think other- 
wise, will find themselves mistaken. There is 
only one way that Slavery can be made to live 
long in America. You must snufFout civili- 
zation, or civilization will snuff out slavery. 
You must shut up the school-houses, or the 
baracoons. You must put out the increasing 
Moral Light of the world, so that Slavery can 
not be seen. A man in the dark might calmly 
and complacently retire to rest with a deadly 
serpent coiied under his bed; but with a light, 
he would have his snakeship abolished before 
he retired. 

The only remaining Error or Fault 

that can I»e charged against Kossuth^ 
by the friends off Xiteerty. 

But you will say to me that Kossuth has 
spoken of the American People as " free, 
brave, generous, and happy." Free? — when 
men. charged with no crime, are worked with- 
out consent, contract or wages, when women 
are whipped, and the infant is sold from its 
mother's arms ! Is this Freedom? Brave? 
— when twenty millions, who claim to be rich, 
powerful and intelligent, oppress three millions 
who are declared to be poor, feeble and igno- 
rant! Brave ! when a troop of men, educated 
in common and uncommon schools, armed 
with pistols, knives and bludgeons, will hunt 



down and sit in mock judgment on a poor man 
not charged with crime, to teach whom the 
alphabet is made felony, and all this, to compel 
him to work without wages, never to do as he 
pleases with himself, to have no will of his 
own, but to be worked and bought and sold 
and whipped, as the temper or avarice of oth- 
er men shall dictate, during his life ! Shade of 
Ethan Allen! — is that bravery ? Generous? 
— when the strong oppress the weak ! Hap- 
py?— when parents and children are separat- 
ed forever, as cattle and their offspring are 
separated, and husband and wife in the same 
manner, with no protest but tears and that 
agony of soul which every one can faintly 
imagine, and with no consolation but the lash 
and the grave ! Oh, how the soul saddens 
and shudders at such a contemplation! Can 
those who endure such wrongs, be "happy" 1 
If not, what must we say of those who inflict 
them? Can they possibly be happy? If so, 
then there is no natural difference between 
right and wrong. Then there is in nature, no 
difference between justice and injustice. For 
if there be such distinction, it will vindicate, 
itself upon every living man, until the Author 
of that nature is dethroned. But the supposi- 
tion is not true. This distinction does exist 
in nature. The man who does injustice is 
not happy. He can no more be happy, than 
he can be calm and placid and contented and 
at ease, with his finger in a blaze of fire. Such 
is the law of nature. The law written by the 
Deity on or in the mind of man, is, that in all 
his relations with his fellow-man, Justice, Re- 
spect, and Kindness, shall be supreme : For 
these are the functions of Conscientiousness, 
Veneration and Benevolence, which are not 
only Primitive Faculties of the human mind, 
but are to be obeyed by all the others. This 
is the equilibrium existing in nature. The 
moment a man is unjust, unkind, or disrespect- 
ful to another, the harmony of his own na- 
ture is destroyed. The soul, therefore, that 
does injustice, has a quarrel with itself. It 
can no more remain pure and happy, than liv- 
ing flesh in the fire can escape disorganization. 
The soul of the Oppressor, therefore, must be 
defiled and degraded : that of the Oppressed, 
may or may not be. He who does a wrong, 
violates his own nature, and is corrupted by 
the act : The person wronged, may still be as 
pure and perfect as before. To know real joy 
— any thing worth being called bliss — the law 
of the mind which I have here stated, must be 
obeyed. Our treatment of all others, must be 
kind, just, and respectful— in precisely the 
measure we require of them. How, then, can 
those rich and strong men, who buy and sell 
and whip poor and ignorant men, and women 
and children, be happy ? How, then, can those 
in the United States, who hunt poor men, 
their equals in a right to the free enjoyment of 



the bounties of one common Father, as they 
do wild beasts in Africa — with the s.nme weap- 
ons and purpose, be happy? Can those 
who " love to have it so," be happy ? Can 
those who idly stand by, practically assenting, 
and permit it "to be so, be happy ? No, never ! 
till the laws of Nature, and of Revelation, its 
exposition, are changed ; for till then, the pos- 
itive mandate of both to all these, is — " What- 
soever ye would that men should do unto you, 
do ye even so to them." This is a reality ; a 
reality of nature; Revelation only declares the 
existing truth : And he who violates it, scathes, 
blights, and withers his own soul; a result 
from which he can no more escape than from 
his existence. 

No intelligent, thinking person, will deny 
that these are true statements of the character 
and position of the American People, to-day. 

How, then, could Kossuth, who is, in my 
judgment, without any superior, living or dead, 
in the Individual, Social and Political philoso- 
phy of man, make use of the language above 
quoted ? 

I answer, that though the greatest man who 
has ever lived, he is only a man. It is because. 
as a man, he is so God-like, that he receives 
the deep and almost unqualified homage of my 
whole nature : a homage not the less sincere, 
not less strong, because, like the sun, there are 
spots on him. His human nature is the title to 
equal brotherhood with him. 

I offer one or two points in mitigation. 

First — That he takes the American People 
at their word. They say they are " free, 
brave, generous and happy." " So be it," says 
Kossuth ; " And by this sign do I demand 
that concerning the rights and the brotherhood 
of nations, you act as becomes your profess- 
sions. By this, do I demand of you, that you 
acknowledge these blessings, by declaring the 
right of all other nations to enjoy them unmo- 
lested. You say you are free, brave, generous 
and happy : I demand that you act so. I take 
you at your word." 

Again : It is undeniable that the Govern- 
ment of the United States, has more of free- 
dom in it, and also more of tyranny, than any 
other where the people can either read or 
write. The character of the American Peo- 
ple has two sides to it : one, the v. hitest in 
Christendom — the other, the blackest. No- 
where else on earth is so much of natural right 
enjoyed : nowhere is there more high-handed 
and peijurous oppression. There is no more 
complete, no more unrelenting, no more op- 
pressive, no more brutal, no more cruel des- 
potism on earth, than the United States. How 
true again the ever memorable words applied to 
Lord Bacon: 

"The wisest, greatest, meanest of mankind"! 

Kossuth addressed the white side only of 
the American character. He came to set the 



American People to do what they never yet 
have done — to sacrifice or hazard something 
for the rights or liberty of anybody but a por- 
tion of themselves. He came to get them to 
" do as they would be done by." What a 
bold attempt on a nation of Oppressors ! To 
ask them, in the plain and enduring language 
of acts, to publish a stinging libel on them- 
selves! The imminent urgency of his cause 
— his intense desire to get a nation which 
hunts as beasts of prey, and buys and sells a 
portion of its own people, to decare immedi- 
ately the "brotherhood" of nations! — to get 
such a people to assert that Liberty is a Prin- 
ciple — he consented to recognize only the 
bright side of their character. 

This is Kossuth's error: the spot on the 
Sun : But like that luminary, the dazzling light 
of this mighty orb of Liberty, almost renders 
the spots invisible, yet truth cannot deny then- 
existence. 

So much in regard to Kossuth. 

Bespeflsna ill Europe, asad Kespotisssa Ijs 
America, com pared. -«>Mesice, wJsat is 
Ose real Political Cliaracter of tJie 
American i'eople ? 

A few words in reference to the Ameri- 
can Character and Future, and the special ob- 
jects of Kossuth's Mission, and I shall have 
done. 

There is a bright and a hopeful side to the 
American character. In truth, America is " not 
dead, but sleepeth." Long and great Prosper- 
ity has proved a narcotic too strong for her 
nerves, and has put to sleep her respect for 
Principle, and her sense of Right. But the 
first " shock of arms" for Liberty in Europe, 
will arouse her. The unprecedented enthu- 
siasm with which Kossuth has been received 
by the yreat majority of the American People, 
and the intensity of interest with which his 
words have been read, prove that the elements 
of true greatness exist. The belittling, de- 
grading and demoralizing egotism of party, 
the passions engendered by powerful and pet- 
ty strifes on domestic questions, the seductive 
influence of prosperity aud progress unparal- 
leled in. the history of mankind, the self- 
complacency resulting from the supposed pos- 
session of power which could not be over- 
thrown, have all conspired to make the Amer- 
ican People proud, haughty, arrogant, unre- 
flecting, self-glorifying, and regardless of the 
rights or wrongs of the poor and the feeble. 
It is not in the hour of prosperity, but in the 
hour of adversity, that we think of the woes 
of others. We have forgotten that Despo- 
tism is simply to overcome Right with Might. 
We have forgotten, that if twenty millions 
oppress one man, and deprive him of a natu- 
ral right, it is Despotism. If twenty millions 
make one man a slave, it is despotism : if the 
twenty millions are slaves to one, that is des> 



9 



potism. How dof-s our account stand ? Are 
we despots, or are we not? Is our Govern- 
ment a Despotic Government, or is it not? 
Before God ami man, what title has Kossuth 
to Liberty, that Shad rach, and Jerry, and Lo- 
<ruen do not possess ? Do they not love their 
Fatherland as well? Have they not served 
in the prison-house of slavery, without even 
the Alphabet or Word of their Maker, much 
less Shakspeare and Walker's Dictionary? 
Have they not showed that they love Liberty, 
by helping themselves to it? Is exile, in pov- 
erty, from fatherland, from home and wife and 
chilllren, less bitter to the noble Loguen, than 
to the no more brave, no more noble Kossuth ? 
It is the American Government which makes 
the noble Loguen an exile: It is the Austrian 
which makes the noble Kossuth an exile. It 
is for the logic of Kossuth, or of any man liv- 
ing, to point out any difference in principle. It 
is a task to which I confess myself incompe- 
tent. 

Do we say we have fought for Liberty ? — 
that we love Liberty ? For whom? For our- 
selves: for the Sovereigns of America! Do 
the Sovereigns of Europe, who we call perjur- 
ous despots, love Liberty less? — for them- 
selves ! They will toil for it, fight for it, die 
for it, if need be : but never give it up, save 
in exile or death. What do American Sove- 
reigns more ? Moreover, where is the differ- 
ence in Principle or Practice, between the 
Sovereigns of America, and the Sovereigns of 
Europe? The Sovereigns of America assert 
and maintain Liberty for themselves. The 
Sovereigns of Europe do the same. The 
Sovereigns of America deprive others of Lib- 
erty. The Sovereigns of Europe do the same. 
The Sovereigns of Europe deny that Lib- 
erty-is a principle — declare it an accident — that 
it is a thing of Might and not of Right— to be 
enjoyed alone by those who have the strength 
to maintain it. The Sovereigns of the United 
States do the same. The Sovereigns of Eu- 
rope deny that Liberty is a birth-right. The 
Sovereigns of the United States do the same. 
The Sovereigns of America rob, tax, and op- 
press with cruelty, those who are not sove- 
reigns. The Sovereigns of Europe do the 
same. There is simply a difference in names, 
la Europe, the two classes are called Sove- 
reigns and Subjects: in America, Citizens and 
Slaves. The, Sovereigns of America trample the 
principles of law. common alike to the intelli- 
gent of Heathendom and Christendom, under 
foot, in its oppression of those who are not 
sovereigns. All the Sovereigns of Europe, ex- 
cept of Russia, observe, in all judicial pro- 
ceedings, the outward semblance of these 
principles, accomplishing their nefarious pur- 
poses wholly through the decisions of a sub- 
servient Judiciary — a distinguishing feature 
also in the practical jurisprudence of America. 



Here we come to a distinction. The Sove- 
reigns of America, like the Pharisees when 
Time was young, in the pride of professed 
sanctity and of power, add brazen impudence 
to cold blooded perjury aud brutality, and 
yet openly, professing love of Justice, tbe 
Legislative, Executive and Judicial depart- 
ments, trample under foot the principles of the 
Common Law, to the destruction of human 
rights and human happiness. 

Apart from this amazing superiority in im- 
pudence in one party, who will point out the 
difference in political Principle and Practice, 
between the Sovereigns of Europe and the 
Sovereigns of America '. 

So have we gone on. the sovereigns of 
America, enjoying liberty ourselves, proudly 
overcoming the " mistress of the seas," with 
great material prosperity, with the same feel- 
ings of pride as the Sovereigns of Europe, the 
same spirit of supreme selfishness — spouting 
love of Liberty, like the iterated cawing of 
the rook — till we have come to suppose our- 
selves the friends of Liberty as a Principle, 
and not, as the sovereigns of Europe, for our- 
selves and not for others : for the strong and 
not for the weak. 

But, thank God! there is in a majority of 
the American People, materials for the devel- 
opement of the beautiful, the just and the true! 
I'he mere habit of standing by a position is an 
inexpressible element of power. It has been 
exercised in party. Party has been the idol of 
the American citizen ; and, though apparently 
paradoxical, he has been of it the slave : often 
the unwilling, hesitating, terrified, cowardly 
slave of party. Prejudice and weak nerves and 
feebler brains, are the only available apologies 
for occupying such a position, save to thone 
who can plead in extenuation the lust of ava- 
rice or of a selfish ambition. But times are 
changed — or rather, are changing. Only the 
feeble and the selfish now fear the anathemas 
of party ; and few are now so reckless as to 
maintain that a party, as such, has claims on 
any save those who hold or ask for office. The 
man who would even now denounce any one 
but an office holder or seeker, as a political 
" traitor," simply for leaving his ranks, would 
be respectfully and quietly laughed at. But it 
is of the determined character of the Ameri- 
can people in sticking to a thing, of which now 
I speak. What glorious work it will do when 
guided by individual judgment and the simple 
and beautiful dictates ot justice, respect, and 
kindness! The terrific party collisions of this 
country, with their education of energy and 
purpose, were but the formation of batteries, 
which, when manned by the Right, and pointed 
against the Wrong, as they will be, will sweep 
the Wrong from existence as though it were a 
cobweb. 

So I am cheerful and hopeful in regard to 



10 



the Future of America. Revealed to herself, 
I have faith that she will be true to herself. 
Some think this revelation must come in the 
shape of severe adversity and humiliation — 
that the pride and stubbornness of our people 
will not allow them to pause and reflect and 
retrace, till overwhelmed with that disaster 
which a prolonged course of injustice never 
fails, in some form, to bring on the individual. 
But I do not now think so. America is to 
move on, and grow better and better every 
year. It never stood so well as now. There 
must be something unusually " rotten in the 
state of Denmark," so far as relates to the 
cause of Oppression, or a tremendous pressure 
of the power of truth is felt, or else both the 
National Conventions would not have consent- 
ed to repudiate the fundamental doctrine of 
Republicanism — Free Discussion ; without 
which there is, there can be, no Republican- 
ism, any more tha;; animal life without air. 

This is cheering. It shows progress. It shows 

increased rottenness and consequent weakness 

on one side, or greater volume, power and 

pressure on the other. Either is progress. 

Either forbodes the downfall of tyranny ; as 

terrible struggles in the dying ever indicate 

the near approach of dissolution. And there 

is another element of American character, not 

to be overlooked, whose tendencies are in the 

same direction. It is Activity. Activity — po- 
litical activity — is, with the American People, 

a Necessity. Now, at the coining Presidential 

election, one of the great parties is to be de- 
feated. The boaten Party cannot stand on the 

Platform it built at Baltimore, during the pe- 
riod of the next Administration, any more than 

a man can stand on his head for that length of 

time — both Platforms, in tact, being American 

Principles turned bottom side up. So this 

necessity of political activity will compel the I cality. He was filling it, when 12 years ago 



a harvest for Freedom. Isolated from practi- 
cal sympathy with the hopes and fears of the 
friends of Freedom throughout the world — 
the proud incarnation of selfishness — Slavery. 
for generations has to this young Sampson 
been the lap of Delilah. Aroused from this 
guilty and fatal fascination, America will strike 
for the Freedom of Man! and in doing so, by 
the inevitable laws will also become free. 

IiiterveMtswaa. 

As to Intervention, in the affairs of individ- 
uals or of nations, of which you speak, there is 
only one rule for its justification, and that is, 
to vindicate the rights of a party which have 
been trampled on by another. I have not 
room to say more. The law is, " Thou 
shalt loce thy neighbor as thyself." Love is 
not a negation. We usually aid those we love, 
when they are oppressed or in trouble. But 
all this will regulate itself, as the world becomes 
more enlightened and humane. If the people 
of the United States worshiped the principle 
— " Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
unto you, do ye even so to them" — and not the 
almighty dollar, do you suppose the millions 
of brave hearts and strong arms could hold 
still and permit the unutterable woes of Hu- 
man Slavery in the United States ? And let 
me here say, that when the children now in the 
Public Schools of the Northern States, come- 
to have the direction of affairs, they will not 
consent that the government under which they 
live, shall either protect or recognize Human 
Slavery, and they will practically establish 
their conclusions. 

Kossiatfc's Missiosi. 

It is to mankind. It is to organize a broth- 
erhood of nations. It is not a journey or pil- 
crrimaffe to the United States. It has no lo- 



Politicians and the people of the beaten Party 
to find fault with the successful ; and this will 
be done by attacking their Platform, by which, 
odious and stupid as it is, that Party must 
abide. They cannot get off their horse at the 
close of the election campaign, for there is 
something to be done, and they have agreed to 
do it. So the other party, from the absolute 
requirement of activity to immediate success, 
will fall to discussing the positions of the par- 
ty in Power, bringing them to the test of First 
Principles And thus we have a sure agency 
for Progress. 

America is to be regenerated, to a worship 
of Liberty as a Principle. America, revealed 
to herself, will be true to herself. Kossuth 
has done that work, and " the common people 
have heard him gladly." He has electrified the 
intellect, and ' warmed and mellowed the heart 
of America; he has made of the American 
mind, fallow ground ; has sowed it with pure, 
vigorous seed; and our country will yet yield 



the love of natural rights and the irrepressible 
mental activity of the man, led him to publish 
political facts of interest to the people; when 
he was imprisoned three years therefor; when 
in prison he was there studying Shakspeare 
and Walker's Dictionary ; when his irresistible 
eloquence swept the Diet like the fury of the 
tempest, breaking it from its moorings in the 
Austrian Monarchy ; when Governor ; when a 
prisoner, without power of activity, in Asia; 
when, on the Mississippi, by his simple pres- 
ence he set the people on fire, and made 
cowardly, fawning naval officers believe the 
devil was in him ; when in England, feasting 
the eyes and the ears of its honest working 
classes; when in America, developing in words 
of electric power the practical meaning of Re- 
publicanism. His Mission is, a preacher of po- 
litical righteousness to the nations : where he 
is, there it is being fulfilled. He is a political 
John the Baptist. He warns all nations, that 
the time draws nigh when the great Battle of 



11 



Freedom is to be fought. That hitherto, for a j Chan gamier, Cavaignac, and the host of men of 
long period, Despotism has been the supreme clear heads and invincible purpose. These ele- 
power, the arbiter of the fate of nations and of merits are steadily at work. Liberty is the true 
individuals. That soon, a terrible struggle will Promethean fire, which cannot be extinguished, 
occur, to make Liberty the supreme power of 
the world. The first effort may be unsuccess- 
ful ; but come the struggle must. Every strug- 
gle and defeat, is but another round to the lad- 
derby which the sons of Liberty are to reach 
the dome of its glorious Temple. 

Such is the Mission. The real sublimity of' 
the Missionary, is in the Genius which enables 
him to see that day as though it were present, 
and inafidelity to the requirements of that Fu- 
ture, which the world never saw excelled, and 
which is true heroism. 



Will America be a." JLoolter On" m tlie 

World's ESattle for Freedom ? 

I say she will not! Dr. Urn nek, a talented 
German of Buffalo, in addressing Kossuth at a 
meeting in that city, " alluded to the confidence 
" Kossuth enjoyed among the oppressed nations 
'• of Europe, and suggested that in the ap- 
" proaching crisis,America should not be a look- 
er on. v America, cannot be a " looker on"! i 
shall briefly present some views on that point ; 
but before doing so, would like to ask by what 
process, by the operation of what natural laws, 
is America to stand alone, an unconcerned 
"looker on," With her hands folded, when Eu- 
rope is in arms, the friends of Liberty on one 
side, and the friends of Despotism on the oth- 
er? — and when that battle is purely one of Su- 



premacy ? Ave, and when in millions of veins 
on either side the Atlantic, kindred blood is 
flowing ; and, too, when for purposes of com- 
merce, Europe is not so distant, as was Albany 
from New-York, when Washington, with his 
isolated policy, descended to the tomb ! How 
can America be in that hour, so big with the 
destiny of Humanity, a nation of Ishmaelites? 
For under the New Dispensation, he is an Ish- 
maelite, who does not help his brother in need, 
when he can reasonably do so. I have hinted 
at the natural obstacles in the way of our sue 
cessfully maintaining the character of a nation 
of Ishmaelites; and, thank God! the immigra- 
tion of 300,000 annually from Europe, will of 
itself u leaven the whole lump," even if we 
were now so miserably selfish and mean. 

The millions in Europe are oppressed by the 
few. We know the Hungarians love Liberty. 
They have proved that. Turkey is friendly, 
three-quarters of Italy desire republicanism, the 
same in France; and in Germany and Austria, 
the immense majority are for Freedom. But 
the organization, and the balance of wealth, are 
on the other side. Intelligence is on the in- 
crease among them. A stream of correspond- 
ence, rapidly augmenting, from relatives in 
America, swells and strengthens the tide of 
Liberty. As ever, with the occasion, come 
master spirits. Kossuth, Mazzini, Gar'abaldi, 



Let the torch of Rebellion be lighted in Hun 
gary, and the signal will find an effective re- 
sponse from a majority of both educated and un- 
educated classes in the countries named. With 
Russia off, Hungary must be successful. This 
is the whole question. At this crisis, America 
is appealed to by Kossuth, to declare the law 
of nations— to proclaim the right. The ma- 
jority of the people have welcomed his appeal 
with the enthusiasm of their whole hearts. 
They indorse his claim. The Government 
and the Politicians demurred. One hoped to 
eke out its existence : the others were fright- 
ened lest the minority might turn the scales in 
the impending election. And thus the expres- 
sion of the views and wishes of an overwhelm- 
ing majority of the American people is defeat- 
ed" at Washington ! The vast majority of the 
Ameiican people believe Non Intervention to 
be the true Law of Nations; that it is founded 
in Right; that it is the Law oi' Liberty ; that 
an offense against it is an offense against man- 
kind ; that the existing facts in reference to 
Hungary demand a declaration of these Truths 
by their" Government, now. If put to a vote, 
it would carry by five to one — by ten to one 
in the Northern States. Yet our Government 
is dumb ! What a spectacle, what a lesson, 
what a chapter in the history of our country, 
for future examination and reflection! Why 
is it dumb? Because the Democratic and Whig 
Politicians each want the votes of the Southern 
States to help elect their candidate for Presi- 
dent. So that neither dare pronounce for 
Freedom! — for the rights and obligations of 
bleeding Humanity ! 

But there is a power higher than Politicians. 
It is Destiny : the operation of Natural Laws. 
The question is not, whether the American 
People will or will not practically take part in 
the impending struggle, for Freedoufin Europe. 
Far from it. The real question is, Shall the 
part they are to act, be in honor or dishonor ( 
Some vainly imagine that in this gigantic con- 
test, involvingthe destiny of the world and the 
progress of mankind, America, isolated, soli- 
tary^ selfish, can stand alone, a looker on, mere- 
ly giving the hand of fellowship at the close of 
the struggle, to the successful party. Misera- 
ble infatuation ! Every office-hunter in the 
United States, from President to tide-waiter, 
might take this position, and shout himself 
hoarse and leason himself into stupidity inits 
defense, and the course of inevitable Destiny 
would not be varied a hair's breadth. When 
the heart of the people is reached, Politicians 
are of about as much moment in impeding 
their movements, as the green withes to the 
limbs of Sampson. The first blow for Euro- 



12 



pean Liberty, tugs at the heart-strings of mil- 
lions on this side of the water. The entire 
sentiment for Liberty will respond with quick- 
ened pulse; and as well might you say, that 
kindred drops do not mingle into one, as that, 
in this struggle, America does not fraternize 
actively with the down-trodden and struggling 
friends of Freedom in Europe. The Rubicon 
will be passed ! and the " solidarity of the peo- 
ples" established forever ! 

Again: Despotism in Europe is approach- 
ing a "finality." Like American Slavery, it 
is on its - last legs." The necessities of Slave- 
ry, to postpone a little longer the hour of dis 
solution, has compelled its abetors to resort 
to the novel idea of snuffing out Free Discus- 
sion in a Republic ! This, by the way, demon- 
strates that if Slavery is true, Republicanism 
is a lie ; or, in other words.that the two cannot 
co-exist. This Government went into op- 
eration in September, H89; and now, after 
it has legislated just about fifty-nine years 
for Slavery, or from 1793, Republicanism is 
dead, or just so far dead as the Platforms of 
the two National Political Parties are recogniz- 
ed as of binding validity and force. See the 
resolution in each Platform about "agitation"; 
as though a Republic could live without " agi- 
tation," any mure than the human body with- 
out circulation. No men know this better than 
the men who made the Platforms. They are 
not fools: they are politicians. A Politician is 
a being for the present hour; as the little boys 
say, " They spring up like a hopper-grass, and 
cut down like a sparrow-grass." He is like a 
thistle-blow in the air : when there is no breeze, 
he isn't there. A Politician does little hurt, 
except when endowed with those rare gifts of 
intellect and genius which in themselves chal- 
lenge the admiration of all minds, leading cap- 
tive the unreflecting, and rendering them un- 
conscious of the evil tendency of their princi- 
ples and measures. Such, like birds of ill 
omen, like a dark cloud, have brooded over 
the destinies of this country, pervertino- and 
obscuring the divine light of love and truth, 
substituting for their cheerful and life-giving 
rays, the sombre hues of error and the miasm 
of passion. Eut, hanks be to Him who holds 
in his hands all destiny, the fascination of evil 
which for a quarter of a century has held the 
mass of mind of America spell-bound, is broken 
and forever. Like the curling mist of the 
morning, so do the fogs of falsehood and of 
passion which these counsellors of evil have 
engendered, recede before the bright effulgence 
of the Sun of Liberty and Truth, which, after 
tilling the Eastern horizon with his beautiful 
rays, has illuminated our own. 

But tin- is a digression. I was speaking of 
the terrible necessities of Slavery in view of its 
approaching doom : even to the tearing aside 
that veil of Republicanism, behind which 



the sufferings it has inflicted have been en- 
acted, and to stand forth to the gaze of the 
world, an unadorned, unrelieved Despotism. 
The game is up : anti-slavery discussion has 
pierced the veil and revealed the real nature of 
the beast; longer disguise is impossible; and 
with the courage which despair alone can give, 
it steps boldly into the ring for a hand to hand 
fight with Republicanism. To its 'umble ser- 
vants, the Politicians, it dictated the terms of 
this light, and ordered their promulgation 
as the grand hailing sign of distress for 
this final struggle. Ho Three Hundred Demo- 
crats, in solemn National conclave, decreed 
that in reference to the truth or falsehood of 
the propositions of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, there shall be no more discus- 
sion in America! And Three Hundred Whigs 
met in similar conclave, and decreed the same. 
Just think of it! At the bidding of the Slave 
Power, a power as insignificant as it is tyran- 
nical, the two great Parties of this " great 
country," in 1852, have consented to declare 
War on Free Discussion. And one even con- 
sented to pronounce it " dangerous" ! " Oh, 
what a fall was there, my countrymen" ! A 
spectacle on which angels look down with sor- 
row and pity, and the friends of Freedom 
throughout the world, with scorn ineffable. 
And all this, at the bidding of a power so 
contemptible in its weakness, that if left to it- 
self, it could not stand alone! 

Now, with such a notable instance before 
them, does any one doubt that among similar 
despotisms in Europe, the same necessity — the 
hope to avert, and the desperate dread to 
meet, approaching dissolution — will lead those 
Governments to do with Trade with America, 
what the Democrats and Whigs here have at- 
tempted to do with Free Discussion — abolish 
it? Would such a measure towards us, to 
strike a blow at our form of Government, and 
to maintain themselves when hard pressed, be 
any more extraordinary, any more unlikely, 
than that in a country with the immortal Dec- 
laration of Independence written on its fore- 
head, which even fought for it, the Whig and 
Democratic Politicians, with a view to strangle 
Liberty and uphold Despotism, should forbid 
the American People to discuss certain Political 
Principles? Certainly it is not. One is purely 
a question of pocket: the other involves all 
there is of manhood. For he who dare not 
utter his i'l-en thoughts touching Humanity, has 
aheady ceased to be a man. But let the com- 
bined powers of Europedo thus, and what will 
liberty loving, trading, wooden-nutmeg Amer- 
ica do ? Oh, how she would bristle and bustle ; 
how indignantly and saintly she would talkof 
the " inalienable right" to — trade ! 

" When the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be: 
When the devil got well, t!ie devil a monk was he." 

America his one sensitive point touchin 



13 



the world's Liberty ; and although that point 
is the pocket, it will yet be touched. 

So let me say, America will mix herself up 
with the Cause of Freedom in Europe. 

Shall ii be in honor or dishonor ? This is 
the only question to be solved by the Ameri- 
can People. Shall they in advance declare the 
Right, because it is the right, and because it is 
necessary to the protection of oppressed and 
bleeding humanity that they declare it, and then 
whatever blow is struck will be in defense of 
a sacred Principle, as true and eternal as the 
Deity, so recognized by the conscience of man- 
kind, the support of which was sworn bofore 
God and man by declaring it to be true ? Is 
it not true, that — 

"Thrice is lie armed 

Who hath his qunrrel just" ? 

And is it not equally true, that — 

" Conscience doth make cowards of us all" '.' 
Mow beautifully clear, then, is the posi ion 
America should now take! How plain, that 
to a nation, not less certainly than to the indi- 
vidual, Justice and Kindness will bring the 
greatest benefit. Supreme selfishness ever 
o'erleaps itself, because it contravenes the 
eternal laws, which make justice, and kindness 
supreme. Mialllhat be the feeble, cowardly, 
ignominious part of the American People ? Or 
shall it be a part which will command the con- 
fidence ar.d admiration of the world, and make 
the very name of America a terror to those 
who would walk abroad to trample on the 
rights of nations? One part America must 
act. Which shall be her place, in History? 
Shall the record be, that when appealed lo by 
deeds and words of unparalleled eloquence, 
and heroism, she would not declare lhat the. 
right to self-govi rnmentis a Principle ? Won Id 
not give to the victims of perjurous and pirat- 
ical oppression, even the consolation of a dec- 
laration that they have been wronged ? Rut 
that, when the dire necessities and desperation 
of Despotism have shut out the first cargo of 
calico and "Yankee notions." hailing from 
this brave land, which Dr. Beman told Kossuth ] 
loves Liberty next to its love of God, (!) then j 
war lets loose its thunders, and America is at 
once found '• mixing up," hand to hand and! 
shoulder to shoulder, with the friends of f.ih- j 
erly in Europe ! Oh, shame on a people that 
will be led by the nose by a crew of caleulat- J 
ing, selfish, cowardly, skulking Politicians, to ; 
such a fate !— to the meanest place on the rec- 
ords of mankind ! 

Let me congratulate you, Sir, patriot and \ 
philanthropist as you are, that by the inevita- 1 
ble laws, America will "mix up" with the J 
Cause of Liberty in Europe — call it an "en- j 
tangling alliance," or by whatever name. If 
not in honor, thank God ! it will be in dishon- 
or. Mix up she will : mix up she must The i 
cause of mankind's liberty is to be effectively 



served by America: whether she is to earn 
honor or disgrace, is left to herself to deter- 
mine. That she is to act, is as certain as that 
the planets continue to move, in their orbits. 
The Cause of Liberly is one. Europe and 
America are to be free. And they are to min- 
gle blood in the common strife. 

Swsmc l?rcseMt Aspects. 

The surges of Party strife are now swelling' 
over our laud. Party struggle is a state of 
war: Party passion is the grave of princi- 
ple. The American Education is not an edu- 
cation of Principles: it is not an education of 
logic, beyond the logic of making money. Not 
one Young Man in fifty, of those in tiie State 
of New York who this year lor the first time 
will exercise the sovereign power of the bal- 
lot, can give a clear, business-like, intelligible 
statement of the Principles upon which our 
Government professedly rests. Our Schools, 
as a general thing, from the lisping Primary to 
the full fledged College, are mere intellectual 
machines, au arid waste, as void of thought as 
Sahara of vegetation. So much in passing-. — 
Bat this seething caldron of party prejudice, 
party passion, and party interest, contains the 
Principles of Truth. Those principles are im- 
mortal, and therefore cannot perish in any or- 
deal, however terrible apparently it may be. 
The sky is dark and lowering, but, the end is 
not yet. The hoarse cry of Passion rules but 
the hour. One Party must be defeated. To 
one must come the tranquilizing re-action of 
success: to the other the glorious and purify- 
ing influence of defeat: to both, the period of 
calm and severe reflection. The Positions of 
1852, so bold, so clear, so well defined, so au- 
dacious, so transcendently impious in their de- 
nial of fundamental American Principles, on 
which rest mankind's hopes and interests, will 
hopelessly and irredeemably sink the Parly 
which bears out of this campaign the success- 
ful standard. By an anomaly in party history, 
let either succeed, and it is to Tyranny the 
hour of triumph. And no one will so misjudge, 
as to dream that thai is the hour in which Tyr- 
anny relaxes its demands. That man is net 
necessarily a prophet who in plain terms de- 
clares that the Baltimore Platforms of 1852, 
are but "the beginning of the end." There 
is no vitality in tyranny. It contains within it- 
self, no life-giving, self-sustaining power. 
From nature it draws not one drop of life. B 
is a war on nature; and nature is butthe man^fl 
ifestation of Omnipotence. To extinguish 
from this land the love of Liberty as a princi- 
ple, is the work begun by the two Baltimore 
Platforms of 1852. But so far from being 
done, the work is there only laid out Upon 
the shoulder* of whatever Administration ' 
thereon placed, rests the Herculean task of at- 
tempting to abolish the American principle of 



14 



Free Discussion. It must do that, or take in- 
stant quarrel with its god fathers. I am not a 
prophet, when I say there will be an issue of 
Principle between a majority of the American 
People and the Administration which will be 
chosen in November next. This idea, drown- 
ed in the tide of passion, and unheeded in the 
hot blood of war, will prove a reality. The 
daring blow at Liberty aimed in those Plat- 
forms, is to be sustained, or its instigators are 
to shrink from the field, not only defeated, 
not only blasted, but amid the jeers and scoffs 
of the universe, as poltroons, whose courage 
" oozes at their fingers' ends" the moment the 
hour for action arrives. But it is not so to be. 
The game is a bold one ; Liberty is now 
throttling in the relentless grasp of Power; 
and that struggle knows no end, knows no re- 
laxation, knows no change beyond temporary 
ebb and flow, till Liberty or Despotism is firm- 
ly and unquestionably seated in power as the 
controlling element of the American Govern- 
ment. Persecution may be attempted ; but 
be it welcome ! If that be the means by 
which alone the American People can be cur- 
ed of the infatuation, that real Prosperity or 
Greatness or Power can have other founda- 
tion than conformity to the immutable laws of 
Justice and Kindness, which are a part of man's 
nature, then be it doubly welcome ! Those 
laws require no more, no less, than that we 
" l)'o to others as we would have others do to 
us," in whatever relations of life, as well po- 
litical, as social and domestic. Prolonged in- 
justice deadens the sense of Right, emboldens 
and augments trespass on it, and thus fright- 
fully sums up the measure of retributive Jus- 
tice. The history of our Government has been 
an unbroken line of Injustice, notto the learned, 
the rich, and the powerful, but to the poor, 
the weak and the ignorant. This Drama is ap- 
proaching its conclusion. The First. Scene in 
the last Act of the Drama of American Tyr- 
anny, was enacted on the Boards at Baltimore, 
in June, 1852, by two rival Companies. The 
performers exhausted their engagement upon 
this one scene ; but other companies will be 
formed, and every part, whether peaceful or 
bloody, will be executed to the letter, to the. 
final scene: For the Mission of the great Apos- 
tle of Human Brotherhood will not "return to 
him void." The " solidarity" of the Cause of 
Human Liberty is already established in the 
jk hearts of millions in this country, never to be 
fl^ extinguished till her Temples fill the whole 
earth. The contest in America is to be, as 
elsewhere, a desperate one ; for the Programme 
of Tyranny, as it will stand of record in the re- 
sult of this Presidential Election, whatever it 
may be, sooner or later will meet with a signal 
and ignominious downfall. Truth and th^ 
Right will be victorious. Hope lights the 
path to certain triumph. 



What Good Haas I£ossiatSa 9 s Visit done to 



I was asked, to-day, " What good does Kos- 
suth accomplish in America'?" My answer 
was and is, He will make America approach to 
a pause, to consider there is such a thing as 
Principle : That the universe, Moral and Intel- 
lectual, and therefore Political, as well as Phys- 
ical, is governed by laws, existing in nature, 
which can be disobeyed, but which cannot be 
abrogated. In America, Principles are tram- 
pled under foot. Before the almighty dollar, 
they vanish as the dew before the morning 
sun. The lesson America has yet to learn, 
is that principle, not the dollar, is Almighty. 
When principles are valued, they w.ll be stud- 
ied, as dollars are now sought, because valued. 
Kossuth, by his deeds and his words of sim- 
plicity, eloquence and truth, by the beauty of 
his doctrines and the majesty of his Mission, 
will yet make America pause in her mad and 
headlong career of materialism : and for do- 
ing that, he deserves the title. of one of her no- 
blest benefactors, if not that of her Delivered. 

— And now, my dear Sir, I have done. My 
" talk" is a long one, as well as desultory ; but 
on your part, if it contain one whole, plump 
idea to a column, I am well aware there will be 
no complaint; as if that were the case, its 
claim in this respect to take rank with the 
general newspaper, if not with other fugitive 
literature of the day, would be unquestioned. 
As my own hands have placed this Letter in 
type, at odd hours, its publication has been 
necessarily delayed ; and so you will please to 
regard it as my Fourth oe July Talk with 
you, with a portion at least, of the readers of 
the Journal, as listeners ; and to the Propri- 
etors of that paper, for their courtesy, even on 
a National Festival, in permitting so humble a 
member of their craft, to occupy their columns 
with a general discussion, how interesting 
soever the subject, I could not fail to express 
my acknowledgements. If this Letter contain 
any suggestions suitable to the Day — a day 
which gave birth to a public and solemn Dec- 
laration of Truths, which are yet to revolu- 
tionize the New Continent as well as the Old 
—I shall be glad. 

I am, Sir, with great respect, 
Your friend and servant, 

W. L. Crakdal. 
Syracuse, Saturday, July 3, 1852. 



15 



APPENDIX. 



[The subjoined article was written in December last, as 
an editorial for the first No. of my proposed Weekly Jour- 
nal, tlie Slave Law Examimr—a. project I may as well say 
here, was abandoned in advance, because I could not get 
lands enough to assure it, and 1 have had too much experi- 
ence as a printer to attempt, unaided in advance, to cay- 
ry such an enterprise on my own shoulders. To fail in an 
enterprise of that sort, is tar worse for all parties than not 
lo have begun. It injures all concerned — men and the 
Cause. When I published the Prospectus, I expected to 
raise the requisite funds in one week, and to get out the 
First Number by the 1st of January. I worked at it till the 
1st of February, and then gave it up, in accordance with 
my original and unchangeable determination, to risk noth- 
ing beyond the loss of my time. Such a Journal I knew 
was needed ; a dozen years' editorial experience had led 
me to know what I could do ; yet that same experience had 
taught, that to sacrifice myself, in that way, would not be 
a benefit to the Cause. So I consented to lose much, rath, 
er than risk losing more, as indeed I had no right to do, 
as I had not the money to pay with if I had lost. 

This explanation is made, because it is due to myself and 
to the friends of that proposed Journal. My thanks are 
due to those who so promptly responded — not more for 
myself, than for the principles involved. 

Some thought it quite superfluous — like getting a gun to 
kill a mouse in a trap— the Fugitive Slave Law was so 
nearly dead ! Sagacious souls ! I hope the events of the 
last six months have strengthened their conviction that the 
battle is over and the victory won ! The- Examiner was 
intended, moreover, as a faithful Record of these extraor- 
dinary times : accurate, full, arranged Current History, 
in the light of First Principles. 

This article, I think, presents plainly for the reader's 
consideration, one view of Kossuth's work. It gives the 
impression made on my mind by re/ding his speeches in 
England and the city of New- York : w. l. c] 

TIae Apostle <s£ BrotlaerJioocl. 

Kossuth wields a magic power. His peerless el- 
oquence — his unbounded enthusiasm — his unparal- 
leled self sacrifice, suffering and devotion — his sub- 
lime Poetry, profound Philosophy, and pure Chris- 
tianity — his childlike simplicity and directness of 
purpose — -equalled only by the unerring precision of 
his logic, the splendor of his oratory, and the per- 
fection of his knowledge of whatever relates to the 
Social or Political Philosophy of the race, have elec- 
trified the reading world, and inspired men every- 
where, alike the great and the small, with a sense 
of mingled astonishment and awe. One declares 
him the greatest man of the age; another,the greatest 
of any age; another calls him a humbug; another, 
solemnly avers that he is to the Political, what Christ 
was to the Christian system; and so on to the end 
of the chapter. Every man, by love or hate, bears 
testimony to the vitality of his power. In one res- 
pect, the effect which this man has produced on the 
minds of all who have heard. of his deeds or come 
to a knowledge of his words, is identical. He has 
astonished and aroused all. He has shivered the 
iron casement of Selfishness and Tyranny wherever 
found among reading men, and made their minions 
cower and their frozen hearts quake with fear and 
dread. Their lierce and bitter denunciations, prove 
that this wonderful man, with a power of genius 
never before exhibited, has pierced their coat of 
mail with the javelins of Truth he has hurled with 



such terrible energy — and hence their howl of 
agony. Wonderful man ! The good Genius of man- 
kind's Political Redemption ! Not a living soul — 
not even the dandies and blockheads — -can regard 
Louis Kossuth with indifference. As well might 
needles keep still, with a powerful magnet moving 
around them. He speaks to Man : to the -Nature of 
man as it came from the hands of the Deity : and 
wherever there is found a living spark of unpervert- 
ed Manhood, there is a response. His audience is 
the world. 

There must be some explanation of this. Acci- 
dent it cannot be. Unless we believe Kossuth spec- 
ially inspired by the Creator for this work, these as- 
tounding and before unheard of manifestations and 
results — a poor man filling one half the world with 
delight, and frightening the other half — are to be 
explained on principles familiar to men who think, 
and within the comprehension of all. 

There are but two Principles in the Social and 
Political world — Selfishness and Brotherhood. — 
In these walks of human activity, at every instant, 
one or the other is Supreme. From the hour 
when Adam left the Garden under the super- 
vision of Satan, Selfishness has been installed Prime 
Minister of the Political Policy of every People that 
has strutted its brief hour of existence on earth. — 
It has been, as it is at this hour, the pole star of ev- 
ery government under heaven. Varied indeed have 
been its manifestations — from wars of conquest and 
aggression ; from the immolation of prisoners in 
cold blood ; from death at the stake or on the 
scaffold lor opinions held and uttered ; from 
despoiling of territory, of rights and of money, by 
force, to the so-called more refined art of cheating, 
by lying and logic, in diplomacy. Selfishness — un- 
annealed, unalloyed — has been, and is, the Baal of 
Political Worship throughout this earth : — 
And whatever Politician should deviate for a mo- 
ment from devotion to that shrine, would in that 
moment be politically dead. And therefore, let a 
so-called Statesman get an advantage over another 
nation, by force or cunning, and his brow r is adorn- 
ed with a wreath of laurel. "All is fair in politics" : 
And the Lethean waters roll calmly over the iniqui- 
ties of the successful. Since the discovery of the art of 
printing — since ink in a measure has been substitut- 
ed for blood — since opinions as well as bludgeons 
have weight — it is true, that the ameliorating and 
elevating force of man's better nature has been felt, 
and the work of transformation commenced: Yet 
it is equally true, that the role of supreme Selfish- 
ness in the Political affairs of the word, has not 
changed, "Every man for himself," is the law of 
international relations throughout the world, at this 
hour. What a chasm between that Ishmaelitish doc- 
trine, and that which the immortal Kossuth bears 
aloft as the beginning and the end of his political 
creed, and whose truth he maintains with a power 
and eloquence so sublime — " Thou shalt do to thy 
neighbor, as thou wouldst have him do to you." 
Scarcely broader — though declared moreimpassable 
— was the " great gulf fixed" between Dives, and 
Lazarus in Abraham's bosom : yet at a single bound 
this mighty Apostle of Human Brotherhood has 
taken the leap! and, almost bewildered with amaze- 
ment and delight, he is instinctively greeted with 
applause by thelovers of Freedom throughout the 
world ! How i his simple Truth, which carries with 
it, unargued, the evidence of its divine origin, casts 
in the shade the cold, the sensual, the perishing 
schemes for the " balance of power," of your 
" shrewd" politician, of your "cunning" politician, 
of the School of Supreme Selfishness ! It makes, 
at one lesson, Statesman of the whole human family. 
All can now comprehend what is due from one nati6n 
to another. 



i a 



Kossuth, then, is the Apostle of a New Era in 
the political World— the era of Human Brother- 
hood. He has swept a chord hitherto untouched, 
and its vibrations are as intense, as its music is 
charming-, melodious, divine! If by the Law of 
Human Brotherhood we are bound to protect and 
aid our fellow-man, by so much is he bound to 
aid and protect us. As this is the most exalted 
phase of human character, so it is the highest type 
of energy, resolution and enthusiasm. 

But Kossuth is a Genius, without a peer in polit- 
ical annals. At a touch, as it were, he reduces 
questions which Politicians have spent their lives in 
making "profoundly" foggy, to a simplicity within 
the comprehension of the school boys and girls of 
all Christendom. To the humblest intellect, he 
makes the " Law of Nations," as plain as " the way 
to parish church." This is the highest attribute of 
Genius, and is a power which belongs to Genius 
alone. 

But is it for the sublimity of his genius that 
Kossdth is so admired and beloved '? No! It is for 
his Moral Heroism ! It is for that intense love of 
Liberty, and of the rights of his fellow-man, which 
in him" is a reality : which sees his fellow oppressed 
—feels for him— does for him. This it is which 
makes men, true to the instil. cts of nature, regard 
Kossuth with a sort of sacred awe. A man whose 
transcendant talents might place him at the head cf 
the Old School of politics, turns his back on all this, 
and appeals directly to the soul of men, as individual 
men, tbi the good of his country and the race. A 
Genius, beyond the pale of comparison, so he is be- 
yond the pale of envy: while his life and his lips 
are alike redolent of lessons in moral heroism oi 
equal eloquence and beauty. 

Extracts from Etossiitla's Sjseecli? 
[Delivered at the Tabernacle, New-York, on Monday 
evening, June 21, 1852, for the benefit of bis exiled moth- 
er and sisters, — a Speech without, an equal for scholarship, 
eloquence, philosophy, statesmanship and Christianity, 
combined, in siny other ever delivered on this continent' 
and ought to be read by every man and woman in the U. 
Stales :— ] 

" I therefore do not despair of my own country's future, 
though it be overwhelmed with misfortune. 1 certainly 
have an unwavering faith in the destinies of humanity, and 
though the mournful example of so many fallen nations 
instructs us, that neither the diffusion ol knowledge, nor 
the progress of industry; neither prosperity nor power, 
nay, not even freedom itself can secure a future to nations, 
s* ill I say there is one thing which can secure it; there is 
one law, the obedience to which would prove a rock upon 
which the freedom and happiness of nations may lest sure 
to the end of their days. And that law, ladies and gentle- 
men, is the law proclaimed by our Saviour; that roc ii is 
the unperverled religion of Christ. But while the consola- 
tion oi this sublime truth falls meekly on my soul like as 
the moonlight falls on the smooth sea, I humbly claim your 
forbearance, ladies and gentlemen ; i claim it in the uame 
of the Almighty Lord, to hear from my lips a mournful 
truth. It may displease you ; it may offend ; butstill truth 
is truth. Offended vanity n.ay blame me; power may 
frown at mo, and pride may call my boldness arrogant, but 
si ill truth is truth, and I, bold in my unpretending humility, 
will proclaim that truth ; I will proclaim it from land to 
land and from sea to sea ; I will proclaim it with the faith 
of the martyrs of old, till the seed of my word falls upon 
the conscience of men. Let come what come may, 1 say 
with Luther: God may help me, 1 cannot otherwise. Yes, 
ladies and gentlemen, the law of our Saviour, the religion 
of Christ, can secure a happy future to nations, iiut, 
alas! there is yet no Christian people on earth— not a sin- 
gle one among all. I have spoken the word. ■ It is harsh, 
but true. Nearly two thousand years have passed since 
Christ has proclaimed the eternal decree of God, to which 
' the happiness of mankind is bound, and has sanctified it 
with his own blood, and still there is not one single nation 



on earth which would have enacted into its law book thai 
eternal decree. Men believe in the mysteries of religion., 
according to the creed of the r church ; they go to church, 
and they pray and give alms to the poor, and drop the 
balm of consolation into the wounds of the afthctedf and 
believe they do all that the t-ord commanded to do, and 
believe they are Cnrislians. No ! Some few may be, out 
their nation ii not— their country is not; the era of Chris- 
tianity is yet lo come, and when it comes, then, only then, 
will be the future of nations sure. Far be it from me to 
misapprcnend the immense benefit which Christian relig- 
ion, such as it already is, has operated in mankind's histo- 
ry. It has influenced the private character of men, and the 
social condition of millions; it was the nurse of a new 
civilization, and softening the manners and morals of men, 
its influence has been felt even in the worst quarter of 
history — in war. The continual massacres of the Greek 
and Komau kings and chiefs, and the extermination of na- 
tions by them— the all-devastating warfare of the Timurs 
and Gengia Khans— are iu general not more to be met 
with ; only my own dear fatherland was doomed to expe- 
rience one. more the cruelties of the Timurs and the Gea- 
gis Khans out of the sacriiigious hands of the dynasty of 
Austria, which calumniates Christianity by calling itself 
Christian. But though that beneficial influence of Christ- 
ianity we have cheeriu ly to acknowledge, yet it is still not 
to be disputed that the law of. Christ does yet nowhere rule 
the Christian world." 

"Thou art oppressed, O my fatherland! because the 
principles of Christianity have not been executed in prac- 
tice ; because the duties of Christianity have not been ful- 
filled ; because the precepts of Christianity have not been 
obeyed ; because the law of Christianity did not control the 
poliry of nations ; because there are many impious gov- 
ernments to offend the law of Christ, but there was none 
to do the duties commanded by Christ. 

'•Thou art fallen, oh my country, because Christianity 
has yet to come; but it is not yet come— nowhe r e ! No- 
where on earth! And with the sharp eye of misfortune 
piercing the dark veil of the future, and with the tongue 
of Cassandra relating what 1 see, I cry it out to hu.h Heav- 
en and shout it out lo the Earth — 'Nations, proud of your 
momentary power; proud of your freedom; proud of 
your prosperity. Your power is vain, your freedom is 
vain, your industry, your wealth, your prosperity are 
vain; all this will not save you from sharing the mournful 
fate of those old nations not less powerful than you, not 
less free, not less prosperous than you— and still fallen, as 
you yourself will .all— all vanished as you will vanish, like , 
a bubble thrown up from the deep ! There is only the law 
of Christ, there. are only the duties of Christianity which 
can secure your Future, by securing at the same time Hu- 
manity. 

"Duties must be fulfilled, else they are an idJe word. — 
And who would dispute that there is a positive duty in 
that law — 'Lo\cthy neighbor as thou lovest thyself*'? — 
Do unto others as thou wouldst that Others do unto thee. 
And is my nation not a neighbor to your nation? Is my 
down-trodden land a neighbor to yourdown-tro den land '.' 
Oh! my God! men talk of the christian religion, and 
style themselves Christians, and yet make a distinction be- 
tween viriue in private iile and virtue in public hie; as if 
the divine law of Charity would have been given only for 
ceriain small relations, and not for all the relations between 
men and men." " It. is the duty of Christians, it is the fun- 
damental principle of the Christian religion, to do unto 
others as you desire others to do unto you. And if there 
is, if there can be, no difference of opinion in regard to 
the principle ; if no one in this vast Assembly — whatever 
be the platform of his party— ever would disclaim this 
principle, will any one blame me if in the name of Christ i 
am bold to claim the application of that principle? I 
should not speak of politics ! Well, I have spoken of 
Christianity. Your politics ether agree with the ,aw of 
Christ, or they do not agree with it. If they don't agree, 
then ymr politics are not Christian ; and if they agree, 
then! cause no division among you." 



STEAM POWER TRESS PRINT, JOURNAL OFFICE, SYRACrSK. 



LBJa'GS 



